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Jack White’s Blue Period

By Wm. Ferguson April 5, 2012 10:58 amApril 5, 2012 10:58 am

For this week’s magazine, Josh Eells has written the definitive profile of Jack White, the former White Stripes frontman who is releasing his first solo record, ‘‘Blunderbuss,’’ this month. Eells spent close to 14 months on the story, traveling back and forth to Nashville, and it turned out to be a pretty eventful period: White Stripes break up; White and Karen Elson announce their divorce; White quickly bangs out a solo record. And crucially, Eells discovered, the color scheme has shifted. White’s rose period (the inviolable red and white of the White Stripes) is gone. Jack’s in a blue period now.

Despite the unprecedented access Eells managed to gain, he was not present for the filming of the disturbing (and blue-tinted) video to the song “Sixteen Saltines.”

I’m sure the video will inspire endless debate — too disturbing? exploitative? — but I have only one question. Is Jack White (or the director, AG Rojas) a fan of the 1979 film “Over the Edge”? (It was Matt Dillon’s screen debut!) I mean, look at this trailer!

Bruce Grierson wrote this week’s cover story about Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist who has conducted experiments that involve manipulating environments to turn back subjects’ perceptions of their own age.Read more…